MOSCOW – The relatives of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been refused access to his body for a third day, his team said Monday, saying his mother was “not allowed” into a morgue where it could be being held.
Russia’s prison service said Navalny died after a walk in his Arctic prison on Friday.
His mother, Lyudmila, traveled to the remote colony on Saturday, but has still not been allowed access to her son’s body.
“Alexei’s mother and his lawyers arrived at the morgue early in the morning. They were not allowed to go in. One of the lawyers was literally pushed out. When the staff was asked if Alexei’s body was there, they did not answer,” Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on social media.
The charismatic Navalny was President Vladimir Putin’s main political opponent.
His death came three years into his imprisonment in Russia.
He died in the Russian Far North in one of Russia’s harshest prisons after his health had deteriorated for months.
Putin has not yet commented on the death.
Russian investigators, meanwhile, have told Navalny’s mother and his lawyers the investigation into his death in prison “has been extended,” Navalny’s spokeswoman said on Monday.
“It is not known how long it will continue. The cause of death is still ‘undetermined.’ They’re lying, playing for time and do not even hide it,” the spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on X.
In related developments, Navalny’s widow will meet European foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, EU officials announced, as Russian courts jailed dozens of people detained at events commemorating the Kremlin critic.
The 47-year-old opposition leader died in an Arctic prison on Friday after spending more than three years behind bars, prompting outrage and condemnation from Western leaders and his supporters.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he would welcome Yulia Navalnaya to the bloc’s Foreign Affairs Council on Monday.
“EU Ministers will send a strong message of support to freedom fighters in Russia” and “honour” Navalny’s memory, he added on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.
Navalny was Russia’s most prominent opposition leader and garnered a huge following as he campaigned against corruption under President Vladimir Putin.
In the hours following the announcement that her husband had died, Navalnaya, who had not seen him in two years, said she held Putin personally responsible.
She called on the international community to “unite and defeat this evil, terrifying regime”.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Navalnaya’s words “will make us feel the threat that weighs on Russian citizens and on every region of our Europe”, where “violence, brutality, and war have been shamefully and irresponsibly returned.”
Russian authorities have suppressed memorials and tributes to Navalny and courts have jailed dozens of mourners.
Rights groups say police have detained more than 400 people at gatherings paying tribute to the opposition figure.
In Saint Petersburg alone, courts handed short jail terms to 154 people detained at events commemorating Navalny in violation of Russia’s anti-protest laws, according to details of rulings published by the city’s court service over the weekend.
Rights groups and independent media outlets reported a handful of similar sentences in other cities across the country.
Anti-Kremlin demonstrations or public shows of opposition to the regime are effectively illegal in Russia under strict military censorship rules and laws against unapproved rallies.
In Moscow, the US ambassador visited a makeshift shrine to Navalny at the Solovetsky Stone on Sunday, a monument to political repression that has become a major site of tributes for Navalny.
At a separate makeshift memorial known as the “Wall of Grief”, a bronze monument to Soviet-era repression, police had set up fences in a bid to ward off mourners.
Several dozen police officers could be seen standing nearby, but some people were allowed to enter through the fence and lay flowers, an AFP reporter saw.
While many Western European leaders have directly or indirectly blamed Putin for Navalny’s death, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cautioned against rushing to judgment.
Speaking to reporters in Addis Ababa, where he was attending an African Union summit, Lula said it was important to avoid “speculation” and await the results of an autopsy.
“If you judge now and say I-don’t-know-who ordered the killing and it wasn’t them, afterwards you have to apologize. Why the rush to accuse?”
Navalny could have been sick or had a health problem, said Lula, warning against “trivializing” accusations of murder.
Lula has faced criticism for being soft on Putin, his fellow leader in the BRICS group — which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa but was recently expanded to include several other emerging powers.
The Brazilian president has been critical of the US and European responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying Kyiv shares the blame for the conflict and refusing to join international sanctions on Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Western leaders on Friday of “absolutely unacceptable” and “hysterical” reactions to Navalny’s death.
In several cities around Europe, Navalny supporters continued to pay tribute to him Sunday.
In Germany, people laid flowers and candles at a memorial in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin.
In Romania, a similar tribute appeared outside the Russian embassy in Bucharest.
